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Two April Mornings, TheTwo April Mornings, The
Two April Mornings, The
We walk`d along, while bright and red
Uprose the morning sun;
And Matthew stopp`d, he look`d, and said
`The will of God be done!"
A village schoolmaster was he,
With hair of glittering gray;
As blithe a man as you could see
On a spring holiday.
And on that morning, through the grass
And by the steaming rills
We travell`d merrily, to pass
A day among the hills.
`Our work,` said I, `was well begun;
Then from thy breast what thought,
Beneath so beautiful a sun,
So sad a sigh has brought?`
A second time did Matthew stop;
And fixing still his eye
Upon the eastern mountain - top,
To me he made reply:
`Yon cloud with that long purple cleft
Brings fresh into my mind
A day like this, which I have left
Full thirty years behind.
`And just above yon slope of corn
Such colours, and no other,
Were in the sky that April morn
Of this the very brother.
`With rod and line I sued the sport
Which that sweet season gave,
And coming to the church, stopp`d short
Beside my daughter`s grave.
`Nine summers had she scarcely seen,
The pride of all the vale;
And then she sang: - she would have been
A very nightingale.
`Six feet in earth my Emma lay;
And yet I loved her more -
For so it seem`d, - than till that day
I ne`er had loved before.
`And turning from her grave, I met,
Beside the churchyard yew,
A blooming Girl, whose hair was wet
With points of morning dew.
`A basket on her head she bare;
Her brow was smooth and white:
To see a child so very fair,
It was a pure delight!
`No fountain from its rocky cave
E`er tripp`d with foot so free;
She seem`d as happy as a wave
That dances on the sea.
`There came from me a sigh of pain
Which I could ill confine;
I look`d at her, and look`d again:
And did not wish her mine!`
- Matthew is in his grave, yet now
Methinks I see him stand
As at that moment, with a bough
Of wilding in his hand.
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